the scenes are cemented together in the proper sequence, and form
the complete negative. Frequently, therefore, in the production of
a motion-picture play, the first and the last scene may be taken
successively, the only thing necessary being, of course, that after all
is done the various scenes should be arranged in their proper order. The
frames, having served their purpose, now go back to the scene-painter
for further use. All pictures are not taken in studios, because when
light and weather permit and proper surroundings can be secured outside,
scenes can best be obtained with natural scenery--city streets, woods,
and fields. The great drawback to the taking of pictures out-of-doors,
however, is the inevitable crowd, attracted by the novelty of the
proceedings, which makes the camera man's life a torment by getting into
the field of his instrument. The crowds are patient, however, and in one
Edison picture involving the blowing up of a bridge by the villain
of the piece and the substitution of a pontoon bridge by a company
of engineers just in time to allow the heroine to pass over in her
automobile, more than a thousand people stood around for almost an
entire day waiting for the tedious rehearsals to end and the actual
performance to begin. Frequently large bodies of men are used in
pictures, such as troops of soldiers, and it is an open secret that for
weeks during the Boer War regularly equipped British and Boer armies
confronted each other on the peaceful hills of Orange, New Jersey, ready
to enact before the camera the stirring events told by the cable from
the seat of hostilities. These conflicts were essentially harmless,
except in one case during the battle of Spion Kopje, when "General
Cronje," in his efforts to fire a wooden cannon, inadvertently dropped
his fuse into a large glass bottle containing gunpowder. The effect was
certainly most dramatic, and created great enthusiasm among the many
audiences which viewed the completed production; but the unfortunate
general, who is still an employee, was taken to the hospital, and even
now, twelve years afterward, he says with a grin that whenever he has a
moment of leisure he takes the time to pick a few pieces of glass from
his person!

Edison's great contribution to the regular stage was the incandescent
electric lamp, which enabled the production of scenic effects
never before even dreamed of, but which we accept now with so much
complacency. Yet with the